Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1887-08-24
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LAM 1AR1lA01 CUDfOh
nasss Observed Aness ~ ASsrlsina,s :
Indln.
New Orleans TImee-DNmocraA1
There i mot one but many marriage
customs In India The Hindoos are di
vided chiefly into three great scots, but
there are many s~ub-sects, and the mar
siage customs Of these scots and sub
sscts, although agreeing in the main,
differ IN many particulars. Besides the
Hindoos there are Buddhists, Janis,
Sikhs, Mohammedans, and aboriginet
in India and the marriage customs oi
Gil these religious denominations greatly
differ. Among the a~borigines, again,
there are several distinct rites, and
their marriage rites do not resemble
each other except in some insignificant
particulars.
According TO the latest census, which
was taken in 1881, there are "a, 24O, OS5
married males and 54,588, 800 married
females; 5,678, 3S2 widowers and co.
872, sos widows, while there are S.
21S,624 single males and 80, 049, 333
single females.
In India the married life Of the peo-
pie is, on the whole, happy. There
are in this country remarkable in
stances of mutual attachment between
husband and wife, which, / should
think, are without parallel in Europe
or America. According to the Hindoo
notion, the husband is the woman's de-
vota, or deity, to be worshiped. This
notion is to this day largely prevalent,
and almost divine reverence is paid by
many an Indian wife to her husband.
The devotion on the part of the wife
has made many Indian husbands deeply
attached to their partners. although
they might not be their husbands ideals
in every respect. There are Indian
women who will never think i'll of their
husbands, even If they are reprobates
and men Of the most abandoned char
acter, for they honestly believe it to be
a part of their religious duty to love
and obey their husbands under all cir
cumstances. Now this firm and strong
attachment Of the Indian wife has con-
verified many q reprobate husband and
made him as strongly attached to his
wife. The young men Of the period
who have been educated in the English
universities are showing q tendency
toward introducing the Western Gus
tom of courtship before marriage. The
Parsees, . small people who inhabit
the Western Presidency of India, have
already largely adopted the custom,
and marriage is now seldom performed
among the rising generation Of this
community without the preliminary
process Of courtship being gone
through. But the older generation of
Parsees are loudly complaining against
the innovation and condemning it as
not only productive OF no good, but
positively miscellaneous and even bane-
full. In Bengal, too, q party of reform
ers, consisting chiefly of young men,
are also in great favor of the practice
OF courtship, but they do not think it
advisable to allow grown up girls to
mix freely with any and every young
man with o view to select one to marry.
! do not think India, intensely conserv-
alive az it is, will ever introduce court
ship as.i it prevails in the Western coun.
tries, but will surely have something
like it, for it is impossible that as edu-
cation progresses our men and women
will submit to marry without knowing
something about each other.
Practically there is no divorce among
the Indians, although it is allowed by
the law Of the land in the case of the
husband. The Hindoo husband can di-
vorce his wife for any sufficient reason,
but no Hindoo wife can divorce her hus-
band on any ground whatever. The
Hindoo law OF the days Of yore has
been kept intact by the British till this
day. In cases in which the wife proves
faithless to her husband the latter does
not think it consonant with his ideas of
social responsibility to 60 to law, but
to settle the matter out Of court, either
by ~pardoning the guilty wife or sending
her off to her fathers or brothers
house. As to the chastity of woman is
attached an extraordinary amount of
value, no Hindoo would on any account
like that his wife or any other female
relative should be subjected to public
criticism for any of their misdeeds.
The feeling against legal divorce of q
wife is intensely strong among the
Hindoo population, and there has been,
/ believe, not q single instance Of such
divorce. But some time ago q civil
marriage act was enacted, and accord
ing to it divorce is legal, but as yet NO
instance of divorce has occurred among
the couples married according to this
new act.